Stunning Stars At The Met Ball

Hello Gibson Girls! Boy has it been a crazy few weeks. Between filming What Not To Wear, shuttling back and forth from the New York and Washington, D.C. salons, plus all of my various television appearances, magazine photo shoots and red carpet work, I’ve definitely been busy! Last week was no exception as I styled not one, but two of my fave Hollywood ladies for the prestigious Costume Institute Ball: Anne Hathaway and Emma Watson.

The Costume Institute Ball, commonly called the Met Ball, is considered fashion’s biggest night. Put on by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and hosted by Vogue magazine, the Met Ball is where all of the most fashionably fabulous starlets put out all the stops. For big red carpet events such as this, it’s not uncommon for me to work with multiple stars, which can mean a whole lot of work. Fortunately, both Emma and Annie are so wonderful to work with that I had a blast, even though I was running all over Manhattan!

I started off uptown at the Mark Hotel where I met with Emma. This was my second time working with her and I have to say, I’m loving her more and more. Since she’s a spokesmodel for Burberry, she was wearing one of their simply gorgeous gowns. I instantly knew I wanted her hair to be down, soft and wavy to really complement the dress.

Emma is Young Hollywood after all and a college student, but she’s also very stylish so I needed a style for her that was effortless and easy, but most of all chic. I started off with wet hair, spraying Build It Blow Drying Agent all over her head, concentrating on the scalp to help create that root lift. This was followed by Hair Sheet Styling over her entire head to help fill in the cuticle and start building that gorgeous shine. After that I blew her hair dry, then tousled it with my fingers and used a medium barrel curling iron to create soft curls. I made sure to do a deep side-part because it really opened up her face and helped frame the her makeup look–a center part would have closed her off. To finish, I ran my fingers through the curls to break them up, then sprayed Beautiful Hold Hairspray to help keep it all in place.

Once I finished up with Emma, I had to dash downtown to get to work on the beautiful Anne Hathaway. I’ll admit it, I was running a teensy bit late. Okay, a lot late. New York City traffic speeds up for no man. Fortunately the lovely Lady Hathaway was very understanding, but I had to get right to work as soon as I stepped in the door. The moment I saw her stunning, sparkling Valentino gown, I knew we wanted to keep it simple and elegant. A dress as breathtaking as hers required hair that won’t take away from its impact–the whole look should be seamless from top to toe.

I knew her hair needed to be a bit more structured; we definitely didn’t want something that was too soft or romantic. I’ve been working with Annie for about 7 years now, so we’ve worked out a comfortable kind of groove. I started off on wet hair and used Fix It Styling Gel Used all the way through to the ends, then blew hair dry with a large round brush. After drying, I used a large barrel curling iron to create a subtle wave. Normally when you are creating waves, you take a section and wrap it around the iron from the top of the hair down. I wanted Annie’s hair to have just a little bend on the ends instead of a full-on curl, so I took sections and wrapped her hair around the curling iron starting with the ends and working my way up. This gave her hair more curl on the ends instead of the roots, so the look was pretty, but not overly done or romantic. I then back-combed her entire head to give her more volume at the scalp, brushed it through with my Mason-Pearson brush to smooth it out, sprayed it with Beautiful Hold Hairspray and tucked it behind her ears.

It was a whirlwind of a night, but both ladies looked amazing and I had so much fun working with them. What do you think of their fashionable hairstyles? Remember, Beauty Is Individual.